3490-A20 THROUGH ESCON

ITEM: RTA000079203



We have a customer who have ES/9000 connecting 3490-A20 thru ESCON.             
He will connect between 3490-A20 and RS/6000(590) with F/C #2754.               
                                                                                
CURRENT SYSTEM:                                                                 
  +------------------+              +------------------+                        
  | 9421-440 | ESCON |--------------| ESCON | 3490-A20 |                        
  |          +-------+              +-------+          |                        
  |          | ESCON |--------------| ESCON |          |                        
  +------------------+              +------------------+                        
                                                                                
FUTURE SYSTEM(NOW PLANNING):                                                    
  +------------------+              +------------------+                        
  | 9421-440 | ESCON |--------------| ESCON | 3490-A20 |                        
  |          +-------+              +-------+          |                        
  |          | ESCON |       +------| ESCON |          |                       
  +------------------+       |      +------------------+                        
  +------------------+       |                                                  
  | RS/6000  | ESCON |-------+                                                  
  |  (590)   | #2754 |                                                          
  +------------------+                                                          
                                                                                
We do not have any manuals about ESCON connection with RS/6K,                   
so please tell me that how to display on 3490-A20 display                       
when requesting mount(assign?) the cartridge tape to 3490-A20.                  
In my understanding, 3490 displays VOL-SER and MVS messages on the              
panel in MVS environment.                                                       
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
ANSWER                                                                         
R: ESCON and 3490 questions.                                                    
                                                                                
   Firstly, the hardware configuration you have listed above                    
   appears to be correct.  Secondly, when in normal operation using             
   standard AIX commands (tar, backup/restore, dd, cpio), the                   
   message display on the 3490 will not be changed.  You will have              
   to write your own code to manipulate the 3490's display, or use              
   a piece of software that was designed to do this (I am unaware               
   of any IBM products that provide this functionality).                        
                                                                                
   The software and documentation (AIX Parallel and ESCON Channel               
   Tape Attachment/6000 Installation and User's Guide, GA32-0311)               
   lists certain function calls that can be used to modify the tape             
   drive display.                                                               
                                                                               
   Chapter 16, I/O control Requests for Tape Devices lists the                  
   following ioctl() request:                                                   
                                                                                
   MTIOCLD.  This ioctl() request performs a display operation on               
             the device.                                                        
                                                                                
   For more information on the flags and structures of this call,               
   please see the above referenced documentation.                               
                                                                                
                                                                                
ANSWER                                                                          
   The driver for the ESCON attached tape drives on the RISC                    
   System/6000 does not request tapes.  The ESCON driver treats the             
   3490 as any other standard AIX tape drive.  This means that it               
   assumes that it has complete control of the tape drive and that             
   the correct tape is in the tape drive when the tape command                  
   is executed.                                                                 
                                                                                
   Just like any other AIX tape drive, when a AIX command is                    
   excuted, like tar or backup/restore, AIX assumes that you have               
   the tape you want in the drive, the tape drive does not prompt               
   you for a tape, but the command line might (depending on what                
   command and/or flags you use).                                               
                                                                                
   Therefore, the bottom line is that no message is displayed on                
   the 3490 when it is accessed by the RISC unless you are running              
   some additional piece of software which does display messages on             
   the tape drive.                                                              
                                                                                
   Thank you.                                                                  
                                                                                
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:                                                  
3490 ESCON AIX                                                                  
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                               


WWQA: ITEM: RTA000079203 ITEM: RTA000079203
Dated: 11/1995 Category: ITSAI6000HW
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